# 1.5M followers sold for $125: a plugin that "scrapes websites for AI use", listed for sale 8 weeks after launch · Chrome plugin

> Source: https://stringers.io/en/ext/chrome_khcjkaobanoeohahnlffnnppinoeljme.html (Stringers / 什么值得做, generated 2026-11-08)
> Stringers answers one question every day: what small product can one or two people build in a few months and actually make money from. Numbers come from 15 databases we collect daily, each with source and date.
> For agents: these verdicts and the underlying databases (verified revenue, App Store / Google Play charts, ad libraries, GitHub, Product Hunt…) are queryable live over MCP — tools today / hot / products / directions / direction / data. Setup: https://github.com/komako-workshop/stringers (the user logs in at stringers.io → "配置 agent" to get a personal URL). Site index: https://stringers.io/llms.txt

> The term took off after Google open-sourced DESIGN.md in April. The founder used his own account to post comment-for-link Reels, which brought in 2,000 installs. But the audience is young people broadly interested in AI, and almost none of them pay.

[Chrome extension](https://stringers.io/en/ext/index.md) · written 11-6

Sitepeel – Website Cloner, CSS Inspector & Design MD · sitepeel.dev

# 1.5M followers sold for $125: a plugin that "scrapes websites for AI use", listed for sale 8 weeks after launch

**What it is** A Chrome plugin that turns any webpage into CSS, fonts and color palettes, plus a DESIGN.md and a clone prompt written for Cursor and Claude Code to follow.

**Why it took off** The term blew up after Google open-sourced DESIGN.md in April. The founder used his own account to comment for links on Reels, bringing in 2,000 installs; but the audience is young people with general AI interest, and almost nobody pays.

**D** **How you could follow it** Stop building the "URL in, DESIGN.md out" free layer. If you do build, move downstream (extract the spec from a logged-in back office, output Tailwind/component libraries directly for teams to buy), and acquire users where developers actually hang out.

D grade: the niche was already consumed in a first wave in April. Top free plugins have 40k users, and Google is the origin of the format. Even with 1.5M followers it only earned $125, showing the demand exists but willingness to pay does not. Knowing its lessons is enough. Publicly known / widely discussed

2,000 users · rating 4.2 (5)

An Instagram creator who talks about AI tools built a Chrome plugin that turns any webpage into a DESIGN.md for Cursor and Claude Code to follow, then posted several short videos on his own account with the "comment the keyword and I'll DM you the link" hook. 8 weeks later: 2,000 users, about $125 in cumulative revenue, and a listing price of $2,500. This piece lays out how it happened, why these 2,000 people did not turn it into money, and whether this niche is still worth your time.

### A "comment Design and I'll send you the link" Reel

Around early October, the Instagram account @josephbadiger posted a Reel whose first line reads:

> Comment "Design" and I'll send you the link 👀

The rest of the caption continues: see a website with a beautiful UI? You no longer need hours guessing its fonts, colors and spacing. Just pull down its design.md, "your AI coding agent finally has a real design reference 😭". Over the next month he posted several more videos using the same formula, like "comment Clone" and "comment Slop", covering "clone any website" and "detect how AI-made a site looks". This is a classic comment-for-link funnel: you comment a word, and an automatic DM sends you the link.

The videos promoted Sitepeel (sitepeel.dev), which went live on the Chrome Store in September 13. The account owner Joseph Badiger self-reports on the influencer marketplace Collabstr as having 1.5M Instagram followers, an average of 250k views per Reel, and a Reel ad rate of $300. Whether he is the founder or was paid to promote it has not been fully verified; but Sitepeel's PeerPush account is linked to his X account, and he himself says he is "building products and websites", so it is most likely his own product (inference).

### What it is

A "15 in 1" toolbox: open it on any webpage to inspect CSS, identify fonts, grab colors, measure dimensions, download assets, take full-page screenshots, see the tech stack, and test responsiveness. It can also generate, with one click, two things built specifically for AI coding tools:

- **DESIGN.md** : writes the site's colors, font sizes, spacing and border radii into a file placed in your project, so an AI agent writes pages in that style;

- **Clone prompt** : a prompt you feed to Cursor, Claude Code or Antigravity to rebuild the whole site, assets included.

The site also hosts 9 free web tools that need no login, each with its own landing page (DESIGN.md generator, AI slop detection, "what font is this", tech-stack lookup, etc.). Monetization is a one-time "Lifetime access" purchase, not a subscription. Inside the plugin, 6 tools are permanently free and each of the others gets 10 free uses. The purchase pricing page loads dynamically and was not read.

### Why now: Google turned DESIGN.md into a term

In April 2026 (21), Google Labs open-sourced the DESIGN.md format used by Stitch. "Feed a design spec to an AI agent" finally had a name, and the vibe coding crowd started talking about it. "Clone any website in one click" is also very easy to explain in short video; the demo makes sense within 15 seconds. Sitepeel is riding exactly this term.

The problem is that it came late. A week before DESIGN.md was open-sourced, someone had already shipped a plugin:

| Product | Launched | Users (Chrome Store) | Compared with Sitepeel |
|---|---|---|---|
| DESIGN.md Style Extractor - TypeUI | 2026-04-15 | 40k, 5.0 points | DESIGN.md only, caught the first wave; 20 times its users |
| DESIGN.md Inspector / Generator | 2026-04 | 7,000 / 6,000 | Single feature, 5 months earlier |
| A few similar tools from 5–July | 2026-05~07 | 500–700 | A second wave like it |
| ClonewebX / Anima / AI Site Cloner | 2023–2026 | 50k / 10k / 4,000 | Website-cloning niche, output to Figma or code |
| CSS Peeper / VisBug / WhatFont / Wappalyzer | 2011–2018 | 400k / 200k / 3M / 3M | Established single-purpose tools; Sitepeel bundles them into one hub |

On the web there is also a string of free "paste a URL, get DESIGN.md" tools such as designmd.me, designmd.co, design.dev and aura.build, which directly collide with Sitepeel's 9 tools on its site. Google's own Stitch can also extract a design system from a website. This is not an empty gap; it is a gap that was already crowded by April.

### Where the 2,000 users came from

Store user counts roughly moved like this: about 900 at the end of September, 4 1,000 in October, 1 2,000 in November, and from then through November 6 it stayed at 2,000, 4.2 reviews and a 5 rating. The jumps cluster from late September to October, matching the timing of those Reels; a new plugin relying on organic search would not produce this shape within a few weeks (inference).

Other channels brought almost no traffic: the official YouTube channel's demo video had 2 views in 6 days; it went on Peerlist in September 26 and on PeerPush in November 6, with only 2 likes; it cannot be found on X, TikTok, Hacker News or Reddit. In November 4 it shipped v1.1.0 and renamed the store listing to "Website Cloner, CSS Inspector & Design MD", clearly to add search keywords.

The store has 3 written reviews in total, all short: "very useful extension" (10-09), "Clean, fast way to inspect and grab what you need from any site" (9-25), and one that says "you deserver the 0000 star" (10-06).

### Why it never became money

The official site publicly shows its traffic stats (a sponsor page embeds PostHog data, read in 11-06): since September, 15,031 total views and 7,445 visitors. On revenue, TrustMRR once publicly showed its payment-platform-verified data: $121.76 over the last 30 days, about $125 cumulative, MRR $0, "mostly one-time payments", listing price $2,500. When checked again in November 6, both TrustMRR and the mirror ChartMRR page were 404; whether it was delisted, renamed or sold cannot be seen from outside.

The official site also opened 10 sponsorship slots at $50/month, marked "10 of 10 spots left". None of them sold.

Put these numbers side by side:

- 1.5M followers, 250k average views per Reel (self-reported by the creator)

- → 7,445 website visitors

- → 2,000 extension installs

- → about $125 in revenue

The widest part of the funnel leaks the most. The cause is in his own Collabstr profile: 62% of his audience is 18–24 years old and 70% is female. That is a general audience curious about "cool AI", not people who write websites every week. They comment "Design", they install out of curiosity, but they won't pay for a developer tool.

### If it were you

**D: Look into it, but don't follow.** The DESIGN.md extension category already got hit in April. The top one, with 40k users, is free. Google itself is the source of the format. Sitepeel came in with 1.5M followers and only converted to $125. This category doesn't lack tools now. It lacks people willing to pay.

**Who it's for** : Only people who treat it as a free tool to build followers, for example if you already have an audience of front-end and design readers (developer accounts on X or YouTube) and want a demo you can shoot and post repeatedly.

**Who it's not for** : People who want to earn money from this extension itself; people with no developer audience who plan to grow on generic AI traffic (Sitepeel is the counterexample); people who want to compete with TypeUI or Google Stitch on features.

**How to do it (if you must)** : Don't build the "URL → DESIGN.md" layer again. It's already a free product. Move one step downstream and do the parts they haven't done well. For example, extract design specs from logged-in dashboards and internal systems, which a browser extension can do and web tools can't. Or turn the extracted spec directly into a Tailwind config, a component library, or Figma variables, and sell it to teams instead of individuals.

**How to get users** : The audience has to be right. Go where developers actually spend time: the front-end and indie dev circles on X, collaborations with YouTube programming channels, and the Cursor and Claude Code communities. Sitepeel has two tactics you can copy: first, give each free web tool its own landing page to capture search terms; second, split one product into several video angles (cloning, design specs, AI slop detection) and post them in rotation.

**When is "before" the window** : There's no clear window. DESIGN.md's heat peaked from 4 to May. Entering now means you're in the third wave.

**What would show you misjudged this** : ① Sitepeel sells on TrustMRR for a price well above $2,500, or its revenue jumps by an order of magnitude after relisting; ② a plugin like TypeUI starts charging while its users keep growing, which would mean people will pay for "design specs for AI"; ③ Cursor or Claude Code officially lists DESIGN.md as a recommended practice and search volume rises again.

A last note for anyone trying to sell a product through creator accounts: follower count and paying users are different things. 1.5M young people curious about AI are worth less than 5,000 people who write websites every week.

---

Data and sources: Chrome Web Store listing and reviews (11-06); daily records of store user counts (11-01 to 11-06) and historical curves from third-party extension stats; sitepeel.dev homepage and sponsor page (11-06; visitor numbers come from its public PostHog data); TrustMRR / ChartMRR (revenue is previously public payment-platform-verified data; 11-06 both pages are 404); Instagram @josephbadiger Reels (captions read 11-06; view counts not obtained); creator self-reported data on Collabstr; PeerPush and Peerlist; Google's blog post 2026-04-21 announcing DESIGN.md as open source. Competitor user counts come from the Chrome Web Store. Anything marked "inferred" is an inference.

[Chrome store page ↗](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/sitepeel-%E2%80%93-website-cloner/khcjkaobanoeohahnlffnnppinoeljme)

**Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report**

Competitors

| Name | Where | Launched | Scale | How it differs from this one |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DESIGN.md Style Extractor - TypeUI | Chrome | 2026-04-15 | 40k users, 5.0 rating | DESIGN.md only, got the first wave 5 months earlier; Sitepeel is a multi-tool bundle + clone prompt |
| DESIGN.md Inspector / DESIGN.md Generator | Chrome | 2026-04 | 7,000 / 6,000 users | Single feature, earlier; Sitepeel is less than half its size |
| CSS Peeper / VisBug / WhatFont / Wappalyzer | Chrome | 2011–2018 | 400k / 200k / 3M / 3M users | Established single-purpose tool; Sitepeel packages it into one dock and outputs for AI coding |
| Anima Clone website / AI Site Cloner(step1.dev)/ ClonewebX | Chrome | 2023–2026 | 10k / 4,000 / 50k users | Clones to Figma/site builders or code; Sitepeel outputs a clone prompt for AI agents |
| context.dev / designmd.me / designmd.co / design.dev / aura.build / designmd.app | Web | 2026 | Not verified | Free web version URL→DESIGN.md, directly overlaps with Sitepeel's web tools |
| Google Stitch + google-labs-code/design.md | Big-company features | 2026-04-21 open source | Official Google | Source of the format; Stitch can already extract a design system from a website |

Where users come from

- **Verified** **Creator/founder IG and Facebook Reels ("Comment Clone/Design/Slop" comments swap for a link)** : multiple @josephbadiger Reels including instagram.com/reel/DePudYWIz57; Collabstr self-reports 1.5M followers and 250k views per Reel; PeerPush @sitepeel is tied to X account @Josephbadigar

- **Verified** **SEO free web tool landing pages + store keyword renaming** : sitepeel.dev has 9 tools, each with its own page, plus guides; 11-04 v1.1.0 renamed to add Website Cloner/CSS Inspector/Design MD

- **Verified** **Indie dev launch directories (Peerlist, PeerPush, etc.)** : Peerlist 2026-09-26, PeerPush 2026-11-06 with only 2 likes

- **Verified** **Official YouTube channel** : demo video has 2 views over 6 days

- Inferred **X / TikTok / HN / Reddit** : x-radar has 90 posts over 0 days; TikHub search for sitepeel returns no relevant results

## Why Sitepeel (sitepeel.dev) took off

> Chrome extension khcjkaobanoeohahnlffnnppinoeljme, 2026-09-13 listed. Research date 2026-11-06.

### Bottom line

Sitepeel didn't really "take off". It's a tech creator on IG/Facebook (Joseph Badiger, self-reported 1.5M IG followers and 250k average views per Reel) who used his own accounts to post short "comment Clone/Design and I'll DM you the link" videos, which pushed a web design-extraction extension combining 15 and 1 tools. It rode the buzzword that followed Google Stitch open-sourcing DESIGN.md in April 2026 years earlier. In 8 weeks it got about 2,000 users and about $122 in revenue over 30 days, and the founder has already listed it for sale on TrustMRR at $2,500. Creator traffic converts poorly, and several DESIGN.md extensions in the same niche have more users (TypeUI has 40k). The recall claim that "competitors only have single-digit users" doesn't hold.

### 1. Basic data

- Store: 2,000 users, 4.2 rating, 5 ratings; v1.1.0,2026-11-04 update, renamed to the keyword-stuffed "Website Cloner, CSS Inspector & Design MD", with in-app purchases listed (Chrome Web Store page, read 2026-11-06).

- Our item_snap library: 11-01, 11-03, 11-05, 11-07 are all 2,000 / 4.2 / 5, unchanged this week.

- Extops curve from the recall card: 0 → 70 → 640 → 917 (end of September) → 1k (10/4) → 2k (11/1). Most of the growth came from late September into October, and it flattened by November.

- Revenue: ChartMRR (a mirror of TrustMRR) shows $121.76 in verified revenue over 30 days, $125.45 cumulative, and MRR of $0 ("mostly one-time payments"), with **listing price $2,500** . The original TrustMRR page at trustmrr.com/startup/sitepeel is now 404 and may have been removed; search snippets still show "$127 last 30 days". Our indie library has no record of this.

- Website traffic: the sponsors page publicly shows PostHog data: since 2026-09, 15,031 total views and 7,445 visitors; none of the 10 $50/month sponsor slots have sold ("10 of 10 spots left").

### 2. Competitors

| Name | Where | Launched | Scale | How Sitepeel differs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DESIGN.md Style Extractor - TypeUI | Chrome | 2026-04-15 | 40k users, 5.0 rating, 14 reviews (chromestore library) | DESIGN.md only, caught the first wave after Stitch launched; Sitepeel came 5 months later with a messier toolset |
| DESIGN.md Inspector / DESIGN.md Generator | Chrome | 2026-04 | 7,000 / 6,000 users | Single feature, listed early; Sitepeel has less than half their users |
| DESIGN.md Style Generator (orbitexaio), getdesignsystem.io extension, DESIGN.md Extractor | Chrome | 2026-05~07 | 500–700 users | Followers of the same wave, smaller scale |
| CSS Peeper / VisBug / WhatFont / Wappalyzer | Chrome | 2011–2018 | 400k / 200k / 3M / 3M | Established single-purpose tool; Sitepeel packages inspection, fonts, colors, and tech stack into one dock |
| Anima: Clone website / AI Site Cloner(step1.dev)/ ClonewebX | Chrome | 2025–2026 | 10k / 4,000 / 50k | Website cloning niche; Sitepeel outputs a "clone prompt" to feed Cursor/Claude Code, not Figma or site builders |
| context.dev, designmd.me, designmd.co, design.dev, aura.build, designmd.app (759 in total) | Web | 2026 | Not verified | Generates DESIGN.md from web pages without login, directly overlapping Sitepeel's 9 web tools |
| google-labs-code/design.md + Stitch | Big-company features/open source | 2026-04-21 open source | Official Google | The format's source; Stitch can already extract a design system from a website |
| Chrome DevTools | Big-company features | — | All developers | Free, can view CSS, but doesn't output DESIGN.md or prompts |

Verdict: the niche isn't empty. DESIGN.md extensions already picked up tens of thousands of users in April. Sitepeel came in during the second wave, a "grab bag plus creator promotion" play.

### 3. Growth tactics (evidence)

1. **Founder/creator's own IG and Facebook Reels (confirmed)** : @josephbadiger posted several Reels saying "Comment 'Design'/'Clone'/'Slop' and I'll send you the link" (instagram.com/reel/DePudYWIz57, DetHyZdSxF8, DeHNDrlok-v, DetxKHPN7rR; the Facebook page joseph.badiger.2025 has videos like "Ranking Chrome extensions for developers" and "AI slop checker"). This is a ManyChat-style "comment for a link" funnel. On Collabstr he self-reports 1.5M IG followers, 250k average views per Reel, an audience that is 62% aged 18–24 and 70% female, and a sponsored Reel rate of $300.
    - Is he the founder: the @sitepeel account on PeerPush is linked to the X account @Josephbadigar, and on Collabstr he says he "also builds products and websites". So it's likely his own product, though it's possible he is being paid for the promotion (not fully verified).

2. **SEO free tool matrix (confirmed)** : 9 login-free web tools each have a landing page (/design-md/, /free-tools/clone-prompt/, ai-slop-checker, font-finder, built-with, etc.), plus guides and a DESIGN.md example library, built to catch search terms like "design md generator", "what font is this", and "website cloner". 11-04 store renaming was also done to add keywords.

3. **Indie dev launch sites (confirmed, small reach)** : Peerlist (2026-09-26), PeerPush (2026-11-06,2 likes), webstoreextensions and other directories. His X account posted a list of "78 free launch channels", so he is systematically covering these sites.

4. **Official YouTube channel (confirmed, almost no reach)** : demo video has 2 views over 6 days.

5. X (searching sitepeel in the x-radar library over 90 days returns 0 posts), TikTok (TikHub search for sitepeel only returns skincare results for "peel"), HN, Reddit: none found.

### 4. Why it got these 2,000 users

- **Timing** : 2026-04-21 Google open-sourced the DESIGN.md format, so "feed your design spec to Claude Code/Cursor" became a real need in the vibe coding crowd, and "Clone any website with AI" plays well in short videos.

- **Distribution** : the main driver is a creator's private funnel. The curve jumps from late September to October, which lines up with the Reels posting dates. Organic search rarely produces this shape within weeks of launch.

- **Product** : 15 tools in one dock, plus hooks like the "AI slop checker" that suit video, make it easy to post multiple angles (Clone, Design, Slop, Chrome bundle).

### 5. Differentiation, and whether it's really why it grew

- Differentiation: (a) one extension bundles 15 tools (inspector, clone, DESIGN.md, assets, fonts, colors, measure, screenshot, responsive, tech stack, AI slop detection); (b) outputs feed AI coding tools directly (clone prompt, DESIGN.md); (c) one-time purchase, no subscription; (d) 9 free no-login web tools that double as SEO.

- None of this explains the growth. The real reason is the founder's built-in short-video audience. The product differentiation is also weak: the same "URL → DESIGN.md" is free from TypeUI and 6+ web tools, and TypeUI has 20x its users.

- The data also shows that a big-audience creator does poorly with developer tools. 1.5M followers and a handful of Reels brought 7,445 website visitors, 2,000 installs and about $125 in lifetime revenue. The audience is mostly women aged 18–24 interested in AI in general, not people who write code.

### 6. How many people have seen it

- Revenue is public: it shows on TrustMRR/ChartMRR, and it's listed for sale at $2,500. But the number is small, with no coverage from media or big X accounts, and 0 mentions on X.

- Filed under "revenue public" (listed on TrustMRR), low heat, and nobody discusses it as a success story.

### 7. Takeaways

- The creator builds the product himself and runs a "comment a keyword to get the link" funnel, splitting one product into several video angles (clone, design, AI slop) and reposting them repeatedly.

- Free web tools serve as SEO landing pages while the extension earns; one-time purchase with "10 free uses per tool"; the website publishes traffic to sell $50/month sponsor slots, an extra revenue line.

- Lesson: match the audience to the product. A big general-AI-interest account pushing a developer tool converts poorly.

### 8. Uncertain

- Whether Joseph Badiger is the founder or a paid promoter isn't fully verified (the PeerPush binding suggests it's probably him).

- Actual view counts per Reel weren't retrieved (Instagram requires login).

- TrustMRR page 404; not clear whether the listing was pulled, the slug changed, or it was sold.

- Exact one-time purchase price wasn't found (the website price is rendered by JS).

### Sources

- Chrome Web Store page [chromewebstore.google.com/detail/khcjkaobanoeohahnlffnnppino…](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/khcjkaobanoeohahnlffnnppinoeljme)

- Website [sitepeel.dev/](https://sitepeel.dev/), [sitepeel.dev/sponsors/](https://sitepeel.dev/sponsors/), [sitepeel.dev/about/](https://sitepeel.dev/about/)

- ChartMRR [chartmrr.com/startup/sitepeel](https://chartmrr.com/startup/sitepeel); TrustMRR [trustmrr.com/startup/sitepeel](https://trustmrr.com/startup/sitepeel) (now 404)

- PeerPush [peerpush.com/p/sitepeel](https://peerpush.com/p/sitepeel) ;Peerlist [peerlist.io/sitepeel/project/sitepeel](https://peerlist.io/sitepeel/project/sitepeel)

- IG Reels [www.instagram.com/reel/DePudYWIz57/](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DePudYWIz57/) and others; Facebook joseph.badiger.2025; Collabstr [collabstr.com/josephbadiger](https://collabstr.com/josephbadiger); X [x.com/Josephbadigar](https://x.com/Josephbadigar)

- YouTube [www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6qgiwlex-0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6qgiwlex-0)

- Google Stitch DESIGN.md open source [blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/google-lab…](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/google-labs/stitch-design-md/) (2026-04-21)

- Internal libraries: chromestore item / item_snap (2026-11-01 to 11-07); indie (no records); x-radar (no records); TikHub (nothing relevant)

This article was written by AI from public data and the data we collect daily. Numbers are sourced, and inferences are labeled.